


Recipes

by Ibenholt



Category: Cyborg 009
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 22:45:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13468146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibenholt/pseuds/Ibenholt
Summary: GB and Chang enjoy some peace and quiet without knowing it.





	Recipes

**Author's Note:**

> magicgenetek was my beta for this story! Go check out her stories!

“Chef, he’s here again,” called the unofficial maître d’ of Chang’s restaurant.

Chang sighed. "I’m going to turn him into tomorrow’s special if this keeps up.” Still, he waved his hand, and his assistant let the man in: that bald, tall man with the goofy face that everyone said was such a great actor. The infamous darling of London’s West End, Great Britain.

The man ordered the same thing he always did: a heaping bowl of bah-kuh-teh, which Chang had translated on the menu as pork rib stew, and Chang’s favorite oolong tea. When Chang delivered it to him personally, like he did every time, the man made a big show of taking a bite, chewing and swallowing before gulping down the entire bowl of soup in about five minutes.

And then he drank his tea, closed his eyes. Gave a dramatic pause before he smiled, both thumbs up, and declared: “You got close this time!! The noodles are soft and chewy, and the pork is tender and rich, but the spices in the broth don’t balance out right yet.”

"Hooray for me,” Chang deadpanned. “I’ve almost pleased my most difficult customer.”

"Soon!” the actor declared. “Soon you’ll get it, and I’ll take the entire theatre company here every night for a week.”

“If they’re all like you, don’t bother.” Chang crossed his arms, huffing, “You make enough noise as is.”

The actor grinned. “Just one more try, please?”

“How can you expect me to recreate a soup you tasted several years ago once? It took a year for us to figure out what the dish was! And you can’t even name the seasonings you tasted!!”

"Because you’re the best chef in London!!” Britain answered, “and because I know for a fact that it will annoy you to your wit’s end not to find the perfect flavoring for your favorite comfort meal!”

He came close now, and Chang put his hands in his sides. This goofy looking jerk - he was completely right, and that made things worse!

"Fine, fine. Tomorrow?”

“Sounds good!”

Britain stood for a moment, then looked around very quick. Without warning, he dipped down and kissed Chang’s cheek. Before Chang even react, Britain was on his way out. “I’ll see you at lunch!”

Chang only managed a surprised gasp before he fled to the kitchen, completely red in the face.

~

“And that’s how you asked him out?” Nadia gaped at them.

GB shrugged at the younger actress. “Well, not quite.”

Chang grinned. “The day after, he stopped by and I made a heart out of soy sauce on his plate.”

“So I did the only thing I could do and sent back a napkin with my phone number on it.”

“As well as a request for more soup, because even if the flavor wasn’t right, you had forgotten to eat breakfast!”

Their guests laughed. A timer went off in the kitchen, and Chang got up. “Speaking of, I had better check on the food. GB, come on, I need more than two hands for this.”

GB went with him down the stairs, the smile he’d worn for his fellow actors fading to an exhausted grimace.

“See?” Chang elbowed him as they entered the kitchen. “Didn’t I tell you you’d feel better once your friends showed up?”

“Right as always.”

GB gave him a weak smile, and Chang handed him a stack of plates. “Look, if these thoughts and nightmare keep up, I want you to talk to someone.”

GB groaned, “No.”

“Everyone you know goes to a shrink these days.” Chang flicked a spatula at him before stirring one of the pots on the stove. “Why not you?”

“What if I really am insane?” GB murmured, voice low and panicked. “What kind of people have reoccurring visions of transforming and hurting others?”

A few nights ago, he had woken up in a cold sweat and rushed out to the bathroom, convinced that his face was melting off.

Chang took his hands in his, “It’s just thoughts, remember? They said online that everyone thinks disturbing thoughts sometimes. Some people just get stuck in them like it’s a scratchy record. This is going to pass, I promise you.”

He pulled him down by his tie and kissed him. GB put his arms around him and pushed him against the counter. “How about we send everyone home and you get my mind on other things?”

Chang stifled a moan when he went after his ear lobe, “The sooner they get fed, the sooner they’ll leave. Go entertain them and let me cook.”

When GB came back, Gil was making a case for Kenneth Branagh’s Frankenstein. This he had to get in on.

~

The discussion had gone on for quite some time, and they jumped when they heard a loud crash from downstairs. GB got up with an apologetic smile, but the moment he turned away, he furrowed his brow. Chang was always so careful. He had acted like it was the end of the world when he chipped a cup last week. Came with being raised dirt poor, he assumed.

“Hey, careful with the kitchen, I’m still paying for it!”

GB’s grin faded when he saw Chang sitting on the floor, surrounded by pots, pans and boiling water. He turned almost mechanically to look at him, steam emerging from his nose and mouth, 

“Zero… 007.”

~

Britain must have looked horrifying when he came back up, because Nadia, Gil and Carson all got out of their seats. “What’s wrong?” Carson asked.

“I… Chang’s mom… she… she just passed away, and…”

“What, right now?”

“Yea, an accident.” GB wiped away at cold sweat; his stricken expression was real, even if the story to go with it wasn’t. “I don’t think we’ll be able to entertain tonight.”

“’Course not, mate,” Gil said, “but should we stay anyway?”

“No! No, I think we need tonight to get our bearings.”

~

He waved them goodbye, shut the door and slid down it. His mind kept unveiling memories of the other 00-cyborgs. He could remember his time at Black Ghost, at how hard it had been to change shape at first, and how he had spent an afternoon as a pile of goop, screaming and screaming for help. He remembered his and Chang’s first kiss, pressed together in a hard, narrow bed, wondering if they were going to survive training the coming morning. He remembered the Mythos Cyborgs, and 0013 and Computopia. He remembered helping run a restaurant, and helping Chang in the kitchen as he remade pork rib soup over and over again, trying to recreate a recipe from his childhood. If I can just get the balance of star anise and fennel seeds right….

Finally, he remembered Jet and Joe burning up, and how they all had asked Ivan to put up memory blocks and send them away. 

When he finally looked up, Chang had sat down in front of him, holding their house phone in a very shaky hand. GB accepted it and pressed the speaker symbol. Chang sat down next to him and leaned his head on his shoulder as Gilmore’s voice echoed through their hallway:

“Boys, I’m so sorry, but we need your help.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was intended to be a part of a much longer story. I'm not sure I'll be able to follow through, but I liked this part so much that I wanted to put it up.


End file.
